#DailyDevotion Will God Trusts You With Much?
Luke 16:10-13 10If you can be trusted with very little, you can be trusted with much. And if you’re dishonest with very little, you’re dishonest with much. 11If you couldn’t be trusted with wicked money, who will trust you with that which is really good? 12 And if you couldn’t be trusted with someone else’s things, who will give you your own? 13“No servant can be the slave of two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he’ll be loyal to the one and despise the other. You can’t serve God and money [mammon].”
Speaking about dishonest managers, Jesus then goes into if you can be trusted with very little, you can be trusted with much. Conversely, if you’re dishonest with very little, you’re dishonest with much. I guess that principle applies generally across the board. More often than not in our daily lives, at work, those do a good job at the work they are given to do get promoted to bigger and better things because they’ve shown some competency at it. If you return a screwdriver to your neighbor, they more likely will loan you their lawnmower. If you don’t return little things that are loaned to you, you probably won’t get loaned bigger stuff.
But then Jesus ups the ante here and starts talking spiritually. God provides you with wicked money to buy the needs for your life and the lives of your family. Do you have extra for the day? What do you do with it? Do you hoard it all to yourself or do you give some to someone in need? God doesn’t give you more than you need just to spend it on yourself. If you can’t be trusted with this wicked money, who is going to trust you with that which is really good? Your money is not your own. God provided it for you. He provided the job, the talent, the ability, the strength, the health, the intellect or whatever you think that is yours by which you earn your money. But no matter what you do, it is God who blesses your work and provides wealth from it. So, if you can’t be trusted with someone else’s things (the wealth you think is yours but really is on loan from God), who is going to give you your own? It seems to me here that our LORD Jesus Christ is planning on rewarding his followers differently depending on what they do with what he gives them. True, we all enter the kingdom of God the same way, through faith in the work of Christ Jesus. But the scriptures are replete with instances of the LORD rewarding each person according to what they have done in this live with what he has given them. See 1 Cor. 3
Then Jesus drops this other boom on us. You can’t serve two masters. You’ll either love one and hate the other or vices versa. The two masters Jesus proposes is God and wealth (Mammon). Is your wealth working for the kingdom or are you working for wealth. This is not the same as you either working for money or your money working for you. Either way in that situation, wealth is your master who drives your actions.
Jesus calls us to have everything we posses as belonging to him. It comes from him. It should be used for his purposes. And we should thank him for it. This is not to say Jesus doesn’t want us to buy food, clothing and shelter for ourselves and our families. It is not saying he minds us buying some good food and drink at celebrations. He does tell us when we celebrate we invite people who can’t invite us back. He calls us to invite people other people wouldn’t invite. He does call upon us when we see someone in need to provide for their need to the best of the ability he has given us. This is because this is how he has treated us in our greatest need.
Heavenly Father, grant us your grace to worship you and to hate worldly wealth that we gladly trade it to help those in need, even as your gave your son to us in our greatest need. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.